How To Turn Your Ideas Into a Novel

Anyone can write, but not anyone knows how to develop their ideas into full-written novels. If you clicked this blog, I’m assuming you’ve been bogged down by those story scenes in your head for weeks now and has turned to writing to finally shut your brains up, but of course, you have no idea how and where to start. Don’t worry. I’ll help you in this process, step-by-step.

1. Start jotting things down

Sure, you can tell yourself that your ideas are safe since it is in your head and you’re thinking about it constantly. Wrong!

Trust me. I’ve been in that situation. At laking panghihinayang ko noong hindi ko iyon ginawa dahil marami-rami pa namang story ideas ang naisip ko noong college e kaso nga lang wala akong mapagsusulatan kaya nakaliligtaan kong i-jot down. Kalimitan kasi tuwing naliligo o nagwo-walking ako nakakaisip, e iyon ang time kung kailan nagde-daydream ako. So learn from my mistakes. My tip? Bumili ka ng maliit na notebook at dalhin mo iyon lagi kung saan ka man pumunta. Make it a habit na kapag may story idea ka, no matter how absurd, isulat mo. Dahil kahit anong promise mo sa sariling hindi mo iyon kakalimutan, makakalimutan mo pa rin iyon.

2. Think of the whole picture

What I always do when I brainstorm for a story is to think of a plot. Make sure that the story you are planning to write can be described right away by a few short sentences. The very first novel I’ve written when I was in college involved a group of teens trapped in an abandoned building along with an unknown killer. And from there, I started forming ideas around it, stuffing it with things until I get a clear picture of what I’m about to write. Think of this step as growing a seedling. The seed is the simple plot idea you generated and the process of growing it is the brainstorming activity. Just make sure you have a notepad with you, always.

3. Outlining

Do not start writing if you haven’t outlined everything yet. Because if you do, you’ll be faced with twice more rewrites after. So to minimize the time-cost of the writing process, plan first. Identify what happened from start to finish.

I prefer to identify the ending right away before outlining. This way, I’m sure my story is heading somewhere.

Start the story where the story starts. This means you shouldn’t supply your readers with an info dump of your character’s background before we even get to the beginning. If your story is about two lovers, start the novel where they first met! Not when they’re about to be born yet!

Much better if you write key scenes first on sticky notes or on index cards. You must prioritize the major plot points first revolving around your main characters. When finished, try sticking them in a board and rearrange them in chronological order. If you think something’s missing, fill in the gaps, add more sticky notes with short descriptions of the key scenes.

4. Writing

When everything has been planned out, you can now start flooding that blank Word doc with words. Follow the outline you have written. That will serve as your roadmap during the writing process. And for the love of God, do not be scared if what you’re writing sounds like garbage. That’s normal! You need to accept the fact that when you write for the first time, it will not be that great. But who cares? You are just starting. And no one can read it except you, so let it flow, let all the shitty words go and make that tappity-tap sounds working, ‘cause the only way you could make it to the end is by writing, and no one is responsible for it but you.

5. Editing

Done writing the last word in your novel? Congrats! But no, we’re not done yet. This is the hardest part of all the processes listed in here. You could spend 1-2 months in writing your first draft but the editing process takes a lot more time than that. Maybe 3-5 months or even a year! Now don’t be alarmed. For sure you know that your first draft is not that impressive. Admit it! It’s always that way. So before sending your completed manuscript to publishers, you need to invest more time in furnishing your craft. That includes:

• trimming unnecessary scenes
• adding weight to your emotional scenes
• checking for grammar and spelling mistakes, inconsistent verb tenses, inconsistent terms, and capitalizations
• replacing weak words
• plot developmental edits
• ensuring characters satisfied their arcs
• line edits
• and so much more

You might be wondering when to stop editing? Some writers may take at least until a third draft but there are others who write up to their twelfth draft! But of course, only you can determine when your editing is enough. Once you feel the confidence in you, then you might consider sending your manuscript out to publishers. Or if you have a big sum of money, you could try self-publishing. It’s your choice.

The five steps I’ve listed here are just the basics. This is simplified and is only meant to give starters an idea on the general writing process. Sure, writing a novel is never this easy. But I’m hoping after reading this blog post you might consider turning your ideas into an actual novel.

If you wanted more writing tips and is curious to jump on the rabbit hole of the many complicated processes of mastering writing, join me. Let’s do this together. Follow this blog or if you have questions, let me hear your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Thank you!